The most popular and traditional Czech meals are hearty, meat-heavy dishes often accompanied by dumplings, sauces, and sauerkraut, with the iconic Svíčková (marinated beef in cream sauce), Vepřo knedlo zelo (roast pork with dumplings and cabbage), and Guláš (beef stew) leading the way.
These comforting classics are almost universally served with fluffy bread or potato dumplings, making them quintessential to the local culture.
Googling restaurant menus I came across duck legs, rabbit kidneys, lamb's knee, pork knuckle, veal cheeks and other exotic dishes the thought of which quite frankly made me shudder.
I am not a big meat eater. I like the occasional beef filet, Bratwurst, and Thai chicken curry, IKEA köttbullar (meatballs) or salmon are staples in my repertoire, so I can't go vegetarian. But i sure don't want to see on my plate that what I am eating is an animal that died for me. So no legs, entire fish and the like.
Knowing my husband I braced myself that 3/4 days he'd insist to eat local specialties. What was I gonna order?
I got off quite well. I had pizza (twice, actually), I had a salad bowl, and a sandwich.
For our last night we went to someplace special. We had dinner at Restaurant Zvonice, on the ninth floor of this gothic bell tower that came with rough-cut stone, beams with authentic patina, exceptional ironwork, in fact, even a bell called Maria from 1518.
In an upcoming post, I am going to marvel about the affordable food we enjoyed. That night, we had to open our wallet, but it was really special. Not only was the atmosphere memorable and very distinguished, the food looked and tasted excellent, too.
This is what I had:
Roasted salmon roulade with ginger, larded with lemon grass, served with hollandaise sauce with tomatoes, a broccoli-cauliflower tartlet, white asparagus and Swiss chard
I didn't take a picture of hubby's meal, I think he chose something from the "old Bohemian" category, and Colin's vegetarian dish looked fantastic as well:
Involtini of grilled eggplant stuffed with ricotta and parmesan, served with a hot vegetable ratatouille salad with rosemary, tomato sauce and baked cherry tomatoes
How about you, are you an adventurous eater?
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